Even as the petrol pump display in Chandigarh clicked past Rs 101 on Monday, Chandigarh MP and former Union Minister Manish Tewari fired a pointed salvo on Tuesday morning that cut to the heart of the matter — and to a glaring contradiction that millions of consumers have been left asking about.Quoting the old Hindi adage “Bhukhe Pet Bhajan Na Hoyi Gopala” — loosely meaning that empty stomachs cannot be sustained on prayers alone — Tewari did something unusual. He agreed with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s own admission that there exists a crisis of three Fs: fuel, fertiliser and foreign exchange, but turned the argument around to squarely blame twelve years of what he called ‘gross economic mismanagement’.His numbers, if verified, make for uncomfortable reading.On fuel, Tewari pointed out that India’s import dependence on crude oil has not reduced — it has deepened. Today, 88 per cent of India’s crude oil needs are imported. Petrol in Delhi, he noted, is Rs 102.12 per litre.On fertiliser, he cited estimates placing India’s fertiliser import bill at $18 billion in 2025-26 — nearly three times the $6.58 billion it was in 2013-14. No significant domestic fertiliser production capacity has been created in the intervening decade.On foreign exchange, his figure is stark: one US dollar, which cost Rs 58.50 on May 16, 2014, now costs Rs 95.32. Since India buys crude oil in dollars, every rupee that loses value against the dollar makes imported oil that much more expensive — regardless of what global crude prices do.But the most pointed part of Tewari’s attack was directed at Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri and the state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs): Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.“Why Hardeep Puri Why?” he asked publicly — because the three OMCs together posted a cumulative net profit of Rs 77,280.65 crore in FY 2025-26, a staggering 130 per cent jump over the previous financial year. Even in the fourth quarter of that year (January–March 2026) — when geopolitical tensions flared after US and Israeli strikes on Iran — the three companies together earned Rs 19,470 crore in profit, a 40 per cent jump over the same period a year earlier.Tewari’s question, in essence: if the OMCs are swimming in superprofits, why is petrol being raised in a creeping, daily manner — crushing the ordinary citizen under what he called a “repressive pricing regime”?It is a question that millions of Tricity consumers, commuters and traders are now asking aloud.WHAT HAPPENED AT THE PUMPS?On Monday, May 25, petrol prices in Chandigarh were revised upward by Rs 2.57 per litre to Rs 101.54, while diesel rose by Rs 2.53 to Rs 89.47 per litre. This was the fourth increase in just ten days — the sharpest and fastest run of fuel price hikes in over four years.Across the Tricity, all three cities have now crossed the Rs 100 petrol mark. Mohali is the costliest at Rs 105.79 per litre, followed by Panchkula at Rs 103.61 and Chandigarh at Rs 101.54 — the last of the three to breach the century. Diesel is steadily closing in on Rs 100 too — already at Rs 95.90 in Panchkula and Rs 94.76 in Mohali.The three OMCs had kept retail fuel prices essentially frozen for nearly four years before ending the freeze on May 15 with a Rs 3-per-litre jump. The three hikes since then have now pushed fuel to levels last seen during the post-pandemic commodity spiral of 2021-22.WHY DID PRICES RISE — EVEN AS CRUDE OIL FELL?This is the question confounding every consumer. On the same Monday that petrol in Chandigarh was hiked by Rs 2.57, crude oil prices in the international market actually fell by $15 per barrel. So why did fuel get more expensive?Three factors, working in combination, explain the paradox:Recovering Past Losses (Under-Recovery)For a prolonged period — particularly through 2023 and 2024 when global crude prices were high — the OMCs absorbed losses by not passing the full cost on to consumers. Amanpreet Singh, President of the Chandigarh Petroleum Dealers Association, explained: “Oil marketing companies were suffering from heavy under-recovery for a long time. Companies were facing a loss of about Rs 20 per litre on petrol and nearly Rs 40 per litre on diesel. Therefore, it became mandatory for companies to increase prices. Due to the rise in crude oil and supply costs in the international market, pressure on the companies was continuously growing.” The current hike cycle is, at least officially, the companies recovering those accumulated losses.However, Manish Tewari’s data complicates this narrative: if the same OMCs have posted Rs 77,280 crore in net profit in FY 2025-26 — a 130 per cent year-on-year surge — the argument that they are merely recovering past losses begins to look, at best, incomplete.A Weakened RupeeIndia purchases crude oil in US dollars. On May 16, 2014, one dollar cost Rs 58.50. Today it costs Rs 95.32. This dramatic erosion of the rupee means that even when crude oil becomes cheaper in dollar terms, Indian companies are paying nearly as much in rupee terms as before. A $15 drop in the barrel price gets silently swallowed by currency depreciation before it can reach the pump.Rising Supply and Distribution CostsTransportation costs from refineries to fuel stations have increased, and dealer commissions have been revised upward. These last-mile costs add to the retail price and ensure that any softening in global crude prices is only partially — if at all — transmitted to the end consumer.THE POLITICAL TIMINGMonday’s hike arrived one day before Mohali goes to polls in its urban local body elections — lending sharp political colour to what is already a major economic flashpoint for residents, traders and transport operators in the city.WHO IS FEELING IT — AND HOW?The impact has been immediate across every section of Tricity society.Kulwant Singh, a cycle-rickshaw puller who recently switched to CNG-run auto-rickshaw on a loan, said: “I borrowed money to buy this vehicle because someone told me it would be cheaper to run. Now the price of everything — CNG, food, medicine, school fees — is going up together. I don’t know how to keep up.” For him and thousands like him, the fuel price hike is just one thread in a tightening web of rising costs.Pushpa Devi, a mid-day meal cook at a government school in Sector 38, said she used to take a shared auto to work daily to save money. “Now even the auto driver says he will increase the fare. I am already cutting expenses wherever I can. There is nothing left to cut.”Gurpreet Singh, a cab aggregator driver operating out of Mohali, said the arithmetic simply does not add up for drivers like him. “The app company decides the fare. We have no say. Our fuel cost has gone up by nearly Rs 1,500 a month in just ten days. If this continues past the monsoon, many of us will park our cars and look for other work.”For Chandigarh’s student community — a significant chunk of Tricity’s daily commuters — the hikes come at a particularly difficult time. Navneet Kaur, a postgraduate student at Panjab University who commutes daily from Zirakpur, said: “I was already spending Rs 4,000 a month on fuel. It will now cross Rs 5,000. I have started thinking about whether it makes sense to keep using a two-wheeler or shift to the bus — even though the bus service is not reliable.”Sahil Gupta, a senior economist based in Chandigarh, said the macro implications could not be ignored. “When diesel prices rise sharply, it is not just a transport issue. It feeds directly into food prices, logistics costs and manufacturing input costs. The inflation impact of this hike cycle will be felt over the next two to three months across all income groups — but it will hit the bottom 40 per cent hardest, as they spend a far larger share of income on food and transport.”THE FARMING SECTOR: AN ADDED BLOWThe sharpest downstream impact may be felt in agriculture. Paddy season is approaching, and each acre of paddy farming typically requires around 90 litres of diesel — for tilling, transplanting, irrigation and harvesting operations. Experts estimate that farmers in Mohali district alone could face a cumulative additional burden of nearly Rs 756 crore during the upcoming cultivation season if diesel prices remain at current levels. Fertiliser import costs, already estimated at $18 billion nationally in 2025-26, compound the pressure on farmers who have seen input costs rise on multiple fronts simultaneously.THE HEAT WITHIN THE HEATThere is a grim irony to the timing. As Tricity residents brace through a relentless heatwave — with temperatures pushing past 44°C — the fuel price surge has added a different, invisible kind of heat: the financial kind. Commuters who cannot avoid their vehicles are paying more simply to get to work or school. Those who depend on a two-wheeler for their daily livelihood have no practical alternative. And with no indication of prices easing anytime soon, the aam aadmi finds himself caught between a scorching sun outside and a rapidly thinning wallet at the pump.Manish Tewari’s ancient Hindi verse may have been directed at the Finance Minister — but on the streets of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula, it is ordinary people who are reciting it, quietly, every time they pull up to a fuel station.